


Operation Amiability

by AmbientMagic



Category: The Posterchildren - Kitty Burroughs
Genre: Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Trust
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-09
Updated: 2016-01-09
Packaged: 2018-05-12 19:23:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5677762
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AmbientMagic/pseuds/AmbientMagic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Friendship builds trust.  Trust is what makes a good rapport.  You should try relying on someone besides yourself for once.  It’ll do you good."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Operation Amiability

**Author's Note:**

> Here’s your Super Special Secret Santa Bonus fic, for the prompt “Mal And Zip Are Friends. Mal is also kind of not good at being friends and often resembles a crab.”
> 
> Your Secret Santa is taking a little longer than expected to finish up your present, so here’s something to tide you over in the meantime!

Rosario and her partner, Jack, had beaten Mal and Zip in the latest round of rock, paper, scissors.  This was unacceptable.  With the amount of training he and Zip had been doing, there was no way Level Field and Riot could have wiped the floor with them--her powers didn’t even negate Zip’s, after all.  

And yet, they had been defeated.  The Malek of a year ago would have been offended, would have heaped blame right, left, and center, and stomped away.  Mal was more mature than that now.

He marched up to Rosario and demanded a conference.  Later.  In private.  Without their Betas.

“You know that Jack’s the Alpha, right?” Roz asked with a raised eyebrow.  

Mal brushed that aside.  “You’re the brains of the operation, obviously.”

Jack, who was standing about six feet away, chatting with Zip, raised an eyebrow, but didn’t say anything when Zip asked what was funny.

Rosario quickly put Mal straight.  “That’s why we won,  _ chico.   _ Because neither of us is ‘the brains.’  We’re a  _ team.   _ We’re  _ friends _ .  That’s how we work so well together.”

Mal crossed his arms mulishly.  “Feelings of friendship do not a good rapport make.”

Roz snorted.  “You’re funny.  Friendship builds trust.   _ Trust  _ is what makes a good rapport.  You should try relying on someone besides yourself for once.  It’ll do you good.”  Turning, Roz strolled back over to Jack and Zip and slung an arm around her Alpha’s shoulders.  “Ready for lunch,  _ abuelito _ ?”

Jack shook Zip’s hand.  “Always nice chattin’ with ya, Zip,” he said, before the other team strolled off, leaving Zip and Mal behind.

Zip was almost immediately at his side.  “I’m sorry that we lost rock-paper-scissors today, I know we’ve been working on my training so hard and Jack-and-Roz-are-sonicearen’tthey--” she brought herself up short.  “Sorry. Got going too fast again.  What’s the plan, boss?  More training?”  

Mal’s silence, though it lasted only a couple of seconds, was nearly too much for Zip to bear.  When he did speak, what he said nearly floored Zip.  “Zipporah, would you consider us to be friends?”

Time turned a little goopy for Zip, like it did when she was running.  Instead of bursting out with an answer, she studied his face.  Mal had an excellent poker face, but they’d been partners for over a year now.  Zip was starting to learn his tells, and Mal was genuinely worried.  Her absurd Alpha really honestly thought that they might not be friends.  Poor baby.  Mal thought everything could be solved with more training.  Actually… “Mal, of course we’re friends. Do you think we should train our friendship to be stronger the same way we do our powers?”

The look Mal gave her was so honestly relieved that it made Zip feel a little glowy on the inside.  It wasn’t often that she was the one with the good ideas.  She’d have to try using her speed to think fast like this a little more often.

As quickly as the expression came, it was gone again.  If Zip wasn’t so fast, she wouldn’t have seen it at all, but she did her best to pay extra-special attention to Mal when he got all intense about their training.  

He nodded, poker face back in place.  “That’s a good idea, Zipporah.  I’ll do some research and come up with a plan that compliments the training we’re already doing.”

Zip smiled at her Alpha.  “Sounds like a plan, boss.”  He’d figure out how friendship works eventually.

Their next training session began Mal’s new plan of developing their friendship further.

“Trust exercises?” Zip asked.  “What, like trust falls?”

“That was the first one on the list, yes,” Mal admitted.  

“Okay, sure,” Zip said, turning around and putting her hands on her shoulders.  “Ready?”

“Wait but I had instructions on--” Mal started, but Zip was already falling backwards, and he scrambled to catch her before she hit the ground.  

He managed, of course--he had fast reflexes, and Zip bounced back onto her feet, grinning.  “Okay,” she chirped, holding out her arms.  “Your turn, come on.”

“That’s hardly necessary,” Mal said.  “My posterpower means that if I did fall over, I would heal instantly, so there’s no point to you catching me, Zipporah.”

“Mal. I wasn’t gonna get hurt by falling over either. That’s not the point.  If you don’t do the trust fall, that means you don’t trust me, and that means you’re chicken.”

Maybe it was a little childish to taunt him like that, but the blue band immediately turned around and mimicked Zip’s previous position.  “Are you ready, Zipporah?”

“Yes, boss.  I’m ready.”

“Okay,” said Mal.  He didn’t move.  

“Mal?”

“Just a moment!” he snapped.  An instant later, he began to fall backwards, body rigid.  Time went goopy for Zip again while she contemplated what to do.  Should she let him fall a little further, so he actually had to trust her to catch him?  Or just straighten him back up now, so he wasn’t off balance too long?  She knew he hated to give up control, and she’d already pushed him into doing this.... 

She stepped forward and straightened him back up before he even had a chance to properly start falling.  “See, Mal?  I got your back, just like you have mine!”

“Yes, I know, Zipporah,” he mumbled, straightening his hoodie, but Zip caught another one of those almost-too-fast-to-see smiles on his face.

Mal led her through several other exercises--leading each other around with blindfolds, more trust falls off of steps, three-legged racing, and, oddly, just maintaining eye contact for a full minute.  Standing still that long was difficult for Zip, but to her surprise, Mal was the one who looked away first.

“I think that’s enough of that,” he said.  “Shall we get back to our physical training?”

“Actually, Mal,” Zip said, suddenly jittery.  “I wanted to try something? And we don’t have to if-you-don’t-want-to-butIthoughtitmaightbeagoodidea--”

“Zip!” Mal interrupted, grabbing her arm. She took a deep breath, steadying herself. “Of course we can consider your idea.  What is it?”

“Well, I’ve been working on my strength training…” Zip started.  What if he thought her idea was dumb? What if he didn’t trust her enough for it to work? What-if-whatifwhatif-- “And-I-thought-maybe-we-couldtryrunningwhileIcarryyou?”

Another flicker-expression across Mal’s face--surprise this time--before it was his “considering, I’m the boss Alpha” face.  

Zip tapped her foot as he pondered, shifting her weight and trying not to stare too hopefully at her partner’s face.  

Mal heard the thrumming and looked down at the dust cloud gathering on the ground, before looking up at his partner and giving her a small smile.  “It’s a solid idea, Zipporah.  Want to run a couple warm-up laps while I consider the logistics?”

Zip hugged Mal, lightning quick, before pulling away and starting some sprints.

 


End file.
